Medicine: Lower Standard

There is no evidence that Britons' hearts have grown any fainter during
their years of meat famine and general austerity, but it seems to be a
fact that their blood is running thinner. Last week an officer of the
Greater London Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service announced that tests
on blood donors in 1950 had revealed a hemoglobin (oxygen-carrying red
pigment) level several points below the average in 1939. As a result,
the Red Cross lowered its minimum hemoglobin standard for new donors
from 92% to 85%.